History

Last King of Arthedain

"Arvedui you shall call him, for he will be the last in Arthedain. Though a choice will come to the Dúnedain, and if they take the one that seems less hopeful, then your son will change his name and become king of a great realm. If not, then much sorrow and many lives of men shall pass, until the Dúnedain arise and are united again."

In T.A.1975 Arvedui was forced north by the forces of Angmar to the Ice Bay of Forochel to seek the help of the Lossoth. Círdan, hearing of Arvedui's plight from Arvedui's son Aranarth sent a ship to rescue him in the spring of that year. The Snowmen advised the king not to board the ship as they could smell danger in the air, they suggested that the king should wait until the summer when the Witch-king's power isn't so strong. Arvedui did not heed the advise and he perished when the ship broke upon some ice in a severe storm; thus, Malbeth's prophecy was fulfilled.

Paths of the Dead

Malbeth's second prophecy was in the days of the Arvedui (ruled T.A.1964 - 1974), the last king of Arthedain, in which he foretold Aragorn's passage through the Paths of the Dead even though the event was over a thousand years in the future:

"Over the land there lies a long shadow,westward reaching wings of darkness.The Tower trembles; to the tombs of kingsdoom approaches. The Dead awaken;for the hour is come for the oathbreakers:at the Stone of Erech they shall stand againand hear there a horn in the hills ringing.Whose shall the horn be? Who shall call themfrom the grey twilight, the forgotten people?The heir of him to whom the oath they swore.From the North shall he come, need shall drive him:he shall pass the Door to the Paths of the Dead."

This prophecy was also fulfilled in 3019 during the War of the Ring when Aragorn (sixteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain) learnt from the palantír that Gondor was being threatened from the south by a fleet of Corsairs from Umbar. He needed a route to get to them in haste, and Elrond's message ("Bid Aragorn remember the words of the seer, and the Paths of the Dead") told him how.